We recently released version 1.7.5 of the Aeris Weather API to production which offers several new features, improvements and bug fixes. In this article we’ll highlight the more significant changes, but review the Aeris API release history for the complete list of updates.

New Rivers Endpoints

The recent hurricanes, Harvey, Irma, and Maria, have caused significant flooding in the continental US and Puerto Rico. With the new rivers endpoint, the Aeris Weather API provides access to river and lake gauge information managed by the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS). The gauge observations include information on the gauge location, current water level or flow, flood stages and low-water thresholds. These observations are updated hourly and will include indicators if the data is old, near flood stage, or the level of flooding.

Fetching Information on Nearby Gauges

To fetch the latest observations from gauges around Houston, TX:

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/rivers/houston,tx?limit=10

You can also query specific gauges that are reporting as flooding:

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/rivers/houston,tx?limit=10&filter=allflood

Occasionally, gauges can stop reporting or may not report regular information. If you require information on gauges that have reported within the last 2 hours, add
from=-2hours to the query:

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/rivers/houston,tx?limit=10&from=-2hours

Return flooding gauges across Florida:

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/rivers/search?limit=100&query=state:fl&filter=allflood

Additionally, you can query a specific river gauge using its ID if you want information only for that gauge:

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/rivers/LSSF1

Extended River Gauge Information

The new rivers/gauges endpoint compliments the rivers endpoint by providing expanded information for a particular gauge. This information includes potential flood impacts, recent and historical crests when available.

Lightning Updates

The lightning endpoint now includes information on the height of intracloud lightning pulses and the number of sensors that detected the lightning pulse:

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{

"id":"59cd303fa93c707127c64d76",

"loc":{

"long":-8.83681,

"lat":6.0585

},

"ob":{

"timestamp":1506619444,

"dateTimeISO":"2017-09-28T17:24:04+00:00",

"age":12,

"pulse":{

"type":"ic",

"peakamp":-2136,

"numSensors":9,

"icHeightM":12040,

"icHeightFT":39501.3

}

},

"recTimestamp":1506619455,

"recISO":"2017-09-28T17:24:15+00:00",

"age":12

}

Find the Most Recent Advisories

Two common requests have been for the ability to find alerts issued within the last few minutes or alerts set to expire within the next few minutes. These types of queries are now supported with the advisories endpoint.

There are 4 new query properties that you can use with relative times:

issued – the time the alert was issued

begins – the time the alert starts

expires – the time the alert expires

added – the time the alert was received and added to the API.

For instance, to return all alerts issued in the past 10 minutes near Minneapolis, MN:

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/advisories/minneapolis,mn?query=issued:-10minutes

Or to return alerts that expire in the next 30 minutes within the state of MN: